1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to immersible electrical cooking utensils and, more particularly, to a base structure adapted to allow the encapsulation and sealing of electrical terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The ability to immerse and wash an electrical cooking utensil is highly desirable but oftentimes not possible without resulting in corrosion or other damage to the electrical components resulting in a safety hazard. This is particularly true in electrical coffee makers such as percolators wherein the heating unit, thermostat, electrical connectors, terminals and the like are contained within a plastic base assembly.
Past efforts to make coffee makers waterproof are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,135,189, 3,184,579 and 3,144,547 wherein either the entire base unit or the heating unit and thermostat control are connected to the bottom of the coffee maker by means of resilient gaskets and sheathed electrical heating and control units. Although these means accomplished their purpose, they resulted in extraordinarily expensive parts, required extra maintenance, and necessitated substantial assembly time to produce.
A simplified approach was that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,614 to Loomis. The Loomis procedure was to form a shell about the base portion of an electrical percolator surrounding the electrical heating unit and terminals and then fill the shell with a flowable insulating material. Modifications of this were to simply dip or spray the heating unit and electrical connections with an insulating material prior to their becoming fully "set". It is clear, however, that the Loomis technique required considerable amounts of flowable insulating material and resulted in substantially heavy coffee makers. Also, because the heating units are located in the base, thermal expansion caused crazing and cracking of the insulating material.